


Because Life is Short and the World is Wide (Diana and Jerry)

by elleventure



Category: Anne of Green Gables (TV 1985) & Related Fandoms, Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 02:27:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21067253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elleventure/pseuds/elleventure
Summary: Diana and Jerry configure a way to spend the night together at his house, and in the meantime, get a little closer.





	Because Life is Short and the World is Wide (Diana and Jerry)

**Author's Note:**

> Derry fic of the scene in 3x04 where Diana ends up at Jerry's house, except in this version, her parents don't barge in. :)  
There's more coming after this in the story so stay tuned!  
This may or may not be a one-shot - but let me know if you want me to continue!

She had been aware of him all night. There was so much to see and so much to experience in the Baynard home - including two rugged, surprisingly good-looking older brothers - but Jerry’s presence there was magnetic to her. His familiar face felt like a quiet anchor for her in the sea of chaos, looking at her in a way that made her feel safe and, at the same time…desirable. Several times she’d look towards him and find his eyes, and then she’d look away quickly, always a little bit astonished at her bravery. ‘Your wantonness, Diana,’ her mother would say in response. But in truth she couldn’t believe herself, tonight. What was she thinking? She shuddered to think what her parents would think of her - but in the heat of the moment, instead of dwell on it, she let herself be overtaken with the sheer joy to be alive, in Jerry’s home, with Jerry.  
Now she had her elbow linked in his and he was swinging her around to the music, both their cheeks flushed, the raucous merriment filling their senses, the joy evident in the smiles etched deep in both of their cheeks. Proper or improper be damned, she was so happy, she felt… free.  
He leaned in a little as they danced around so she could hear. “Your ankle is much better!”  
Hearing his observation, Diana made a split-second decision. Looking around, she grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the dancing over to a corner of the room. Immediately concerned, Jerry placed his other palm on top of hers. It was warm. His eyes were bright, and watching her face for any signs of distress.  
Holding her resolve, Diana confided, “My ankle… was never that bad.”  
His eyes went wide. “Y-You lied?”  
Jerry’s candid acknowledgement momentarily left Diana afraid that Jerry would reel back in some kind of righteous anger. But this was Jerry; merry, unpresuming Jerry. He laughed, clearly enjoying her wickedness. Diana almost sighed in relief. She should have known better.  
“I did,” she said, breaking into a smile. “In order to experience something important to me.”  
“What is that?” he asked, breathlessly.  
In the heat of the moment a flush rose to her cheeks as she looked up at his open face. “Freedom,” she said.  
He looked at her in awe.  
The word echoed between them as they gazed at each other and didn’t look away. Jerry’s bright eyes roamed her face and finally sought her own, and Diana was suddenly aware of their aloneness, having pulled him into a semi-private moment. The air between them sparked with a very different kind of energy as he stepped a little closer to her, almost imperceptibly. Without even looking down, she felt Jerry’s fingertips brush hers and knew that his hand was reaching for her own, and nervousness bubbled up in her and sent her heartbeat flying —  
The front door banged open, and both of them jumped.  
“Miss Barry!” It was Mary Jo, clearly distressed. Her entrance set Bonbon the dog to barking, and chaos ensued as the music ceased and Jerry’s father tried to step in.  
“Your parents are gone, they’ve gone to Carmody tonight, for the party, remember?”  
“Oh, yes, I had forgotten,” Diana said, even though this was a lie. She hadn’t forgotten her parents would be out all night, she had just chosen not to acknowledge it to anyone.  
“Miss Barry,” Mary Joe spluttered, “it’s not proper for you to be - if your parents found out you were - I really should take you home!”  
Hearing Mary Joe’s anxious words, Diana felt her whole being crash-land back to earth from the cloud of happiness she’d been dancing on, laying a sudden waste to any dreams she may have formed about that night. The reality of her life hit her in shards. She could only imagine her parents’ faces; what they would say - what they would do - if they were to find her here. She didn’t want to cause them or Minnie May any worry, but she so badly didn’t want to leave. She looked up at Jerry, resignation in her eyes. Her unspoken apology was there, but so was her unabashed desire to stay, reflected in his eyes as he gazed back longingly at her. Diana, however, was aware that the entire cabin had gone quiet looking at them, and there was nothing they could do.  
She hung her head in defeat, nodding somberly to Mary Joe. “Lead the way.”  
The Baynard family assembled and began to file out of the house to watch them leave and say goodbye. As Diana followed slowly, Jerry tapped her shoulder. “Don’t forget,” he said, pointing down at her ankle.  
“Oh, yes,” She put weight onto her allegedly sprained ankle and limped heavily, and beside her, Jerry deftly caught her arm.  
As they approached the door hand in hand and waited as everyone fetched lanterns and filed out of the cabin, Diana’s eyes sought Jerry’s once more, attempting to communicate an unspoken goodbye. To her surprise, he leaned in close, eyes on her. “Do you want to stay?” he whispered.  
Diana looked up at him, heart racing faster, eyes sorrowful. “Yes, of course I want to stay,” she whispered back.  
He grinned suddenly. “Pretend to faint, I’ll catch you.”  
Diana’s eyes widened. “What?”  
Jerry grinned wider and whispered again, “Pretend to faint! You know -” and he took his hand theatrically to his forehead and imitated a fine lady passing out. He finished with a wink at her for encouragement.  
With little time to recover, Diana swallowed and built up her resolve. Well, maybe this was the moment of payoff for all the years of dramatic play acting Anne had forced - encouraged? - forced her to do. Ok, she thought. Here goes nothing.  
On the doorstep, facing everyone, she pretended to turn on her bad ankle, gave a small cry of pain, then brought her hand to her forehead as she sighed and swayed dramatically. At that point, Jerry took over for her. Sweeping her body up in his arms, he shouted, “Help! Miss Barry - she fainted!”  
Mary Joe shrieked and everyone rushed back to them.  
Madame Baynard fought through the fray and felt Diana’s forehead. She turned to Mary Joe definitively. “Miss, we cannot let Miss Barry walk home in this way. She must stay here for the night, and we’ll get her home safe in the morning.”  
Jerry piped in, “I’ll borrow Mr. Cuthbert’s wagon and bring her back first thing!”  
Diana, her eyes closed, fought to hold in a smile and buried her head a little deeper into Jerry’s shirt. In response she felt his arms tighten around her.  
Mary Joe looked at them in anguish. “Oh, this is a merry kettle of fish!”  
“We promise we’ll look after her,” Monsieur Baynard assured her. “Jerry, please take Miss Diana inside and cover her with a blanket.”  
“In the meantime, you must stay for a dance!” said one of Jerry’s attractive older brothers to Mary Joe.  
“Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly-”, protested the young maid, but both older brothers had already taken hold of both of the poor woman’s elbows and whisked her back inside, where soon the music started up again.

An hour or two later, and the glowing little cabin in the woods had quieted. Mary Joe had gone home, on the assurance that Diana would be returned to the Barry household first thing in the morning. An older Baynard brother had gone with her to the edge of the woods, as it was fully dark and no one wanted her to walk back unaccompanied. Diana was leaning forward in a dining chair braiding the thick brown hair of a little Baynard girl who knelt at her feet.  
“All done - c’est finis!” She said, with a little sweep of the girl’s braided hair. “Now, let’s get you into bed.”  
“Sleep next to me,” the girl said in French as she hopped onto her mattress.  
“Oui, je vais,” Diana replied, as she knelt down to settle the happy little girl into her bed, covering her in a thin blanket and giving her and her sisters a kiss on the forehead. “Bonne nuit,” she whispered, and they whispered their goodnights in return.  
She stood up and saw that Jerry was gone. Madame Baynard was tucking in the littlest ones, and Monsieur Baynard was tending to the fire. Diana felt the sudden need to go outside to look for him when the door opened and Jerry came inside, flustered from the cold. Immediately he looked to her and smiled warmly when he saw her, filling her with a warm rush of joy to see him. His brother came in behind him and shut the door.  
“Miss Diana,” his mother said gently beside her, “We have a bed made for you here, and here is your pillow and blanket.” She handed her a thick blanket and pillow and motioned to a mattress near the girls, closest to the fire. Diana took the blanket and pillow with a thank you, and Lisette and her husband both gave her warm hugs and said goodnight. She made her way to her mattress and knelt down, suddenly feeling very confused about what she was supposed to do. Should she undress? Surely not, with all the boys - and grown-ups - in the room. She made up her bed and then pulled her ribbon out of her hair, allowing her dark curls to tumble out over her shoulders.  
Jerry stepped over the beds and knelt down next to her, startling her. “Will you be comfortable?” He asked, quietly.  
She nodded, blushing to know that he was thinking of her. “I’m sure I will,” she said, looking around at the ground covered in mattresses and children. “Where do your parents sleep?”  
“Up there,” Jerry pointed and her eyes followed. Overhead there was a little loft that jutted out from the wall and connected to the ground via a small ladder. The Baynard parents were already up there, peeling back their blankets and folding up their clothes.  
She looked back to him. “And where - where do you sleep?” She asked, almost shyly, embarrassed to ask the question.  
He blushed and smiled a small smile. “I sleep over by the door,” he said, pointing behind him, then glancing around as if he didn’t know where to look. Diana took in the thin mattress on the other side of the room by the door - a sleeping arrangement which was, no doubt, the draftiest in the entire house.  
“Will you be warm enough?” She asked, not knowing whether or not it was right for her to be concerned.  
He nodded, hardly knowing what to think of her concern. “Yes, of course.” Then, boldly, he reached for her hand and pressed his lips to it in a small kiss. “Goodnight,” he said, looking up at her.  
Diana shivered noticeably in return as he gave her hand a final squeeze. Hardly trusting her voice at that moment, she whispered back, “Goodnight.”

Diana shivered and snuggled in under her blanket, turning her face to the warmth of the fire. The tip of her ear was cold and she pulled the blanket up close. The cabin had gone quiet, except for the rustlings of the children as they turned in their beds. Try as she might, she couldn’t get herself anywhere near the realm of sleep. There was too much excitement and adrenaline coursing through her as she played back all of the scenes of her day. She couldn’t actually believe she had managed to get herself here, that all of it was real; nothing quite this thrilling had ever happened to her before. She squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to sleep, but then in her mind’s eye, Jerry was taking her hand and kissing it all over again, and the look on his face as he said goodnight to her made her whole body shudder.  
With a sudden longing to see him once more tonight before she went to sleep, she lifted up onto her elbow, eyes adjusting to the dark across the room, finding the outline of him facing towards the door on his mattress, slinging a jacket over his shoulders. There was no pillow or blanket in sight. Astonished, she looked around to see the older Baynard brothers also doing the same, covered in only their jackets. The young children were the only ones with blankets, and Diana realized quickly that her own was clearly the warmest, the largest and the thickest one. They had gone out of their way to make her feel especially comfortable, and they all slept in next to nothing. She realized with a jolt of understanding that this is the very way Anne must have lived for years before coming to Avonlea, except that Anne never had the love of a family to call her own, like the Baynards clearly did. Feeling the reality of that broke her heart. Diana loved her house, she loved her parents and her sister, and her room and her soft bed. There was never a time when she didn’t feel full enough, or warm enough. She thought back to her childhood and it was hard now not to feel a little spoiled. A memory came to her of when she was younger, and she’d cried when Aunt Jo had bought Minnie May a pony for her birthday - she was convinced everyone liked Minnie May more than her - so then Aunt Jo bought Diana one too. Spoiled, she thought to herself.  
Suddenly, Diana felt very grateful for what she had in her life. She intended, if she possibly could, to do something good with it.  
In a moment’s decision, she raised herself quietly, and carried her blanket over to the youngest girls who slept cuddled together across their mattresses. Working quickly, she tugged off the thin blanket that stretched across the all three girls and covered them with her own heavy, thicker one. As she laid the blanket down, one girl turned in her sleep and Diana paused, heart pounding in her throat, before swiftly tucking in the edges all around them to keep them warm.  
Then she stood there on her mattress, looking out over sea of sleeping children, anxious not to wake anyone in the next phase of her quest. Her eyes found Jerry again, the dark outline of his form against the door. Pillow and thinner blanket in hand, she held her breath and tiptoed carefully around the mattresses and the dining table towards the door. When she got to Jerry, she ever so quietly knelt down and laid the blanket over his form and then, brazenly, not even daring to think about it, she pulled it back and slid underneath it next to him, bringing her pillow underneath her head, moving in close.  
The movement made Jerry turn around, and when he saw who she was his eyes went wide.  
“Diana!” he whispered harshly, lifting his head, his whole body rigid with anxiety. “What are you doing here? What is wrong?”  
“Shh! Nothing, Jerry,” she assured him, propping her head up on her hand. “I wanted you to have this,” she said as she pulled the blanket higher over his shoulder.  
He looked truly anxious. “No, Diana, I’m alright, you can’t - we’ll get into trouble.”  
“Don’t worry, I’m an early riser, I’ll move back in the morning. I just wanted you to be warm.”  
His expression still revealed every indication of his worry, but despite himself he cracked a smile at her in absolute awe, and it gave her courage.  
“Anyways,” she continued, “It’s my ‘thank you.’ You saved me tonight from having to go home.”  
Jerry’s wide eyes took in her face. Making a decision despite his better judgement, he slowly reached out and pulled her onto the mattress, tucking her in against him. Diana brought the pillow underneath both of their heads as Jerry covered her completely with the blanket, tucking it in around her like she did to the girls. And when they were done, they stilled, and looked up at each other, hardly daring to breathe. Her hair, completely unbidden by anything, fell in tendrils and curls over her shoulders and tumbled onto the pillow. Jerry took notice of this and very timidly reached up with one hand to move a soft dark curl out of her face. In the darkness, the moonlight from the little window above them shone in her eyes, her dark hair and the rise of her soft pale cheeks.  
He turned to look up at the crescent moon framed by branches through the window, then looked back down at her. “Diana,” he whispered. “It means the goddess of the moon.”  
“How did you know that?” She whispered back in awe.  
Jerry blushed. “Anne’s teaching me.”  
Diana nodded. “And what does ‘Jerry’ mean?”  
He laughed softly. “I don’t think it means anything,” he admitted, which made her laugh in return.  
“Anne taught me to read and write, too,” he continued, nestling his head into the pillow. “But I’m not so good at it. And Anne has no time to teach me now she’s studying for her exams.”  
Diana glanced back and forth between his eyes. “I could teach you, if you’d like,” she said, timidly.  
He held her gaze for a moment, then his face fell and he looked down. “You would get into trouble for spending time with me,” he said.  
She shook her head, making him look back up at her. “I’m not a princess, Jerry. I can choose who I spend my time with.”  
Jerry breathed out shakily and his eyes went soft, giving her a tender smile, regarding her gently with unspoken feeling.  
Diana suddenly a little felt too flushed around the head and neck area. She reached up and fumbled around to undo the buttons at the top of her dress, giving her a little relief as the dress slipped from her shoulders. Jerry watched her, unable to breathe, then moved slightly away from her and turned onto his back to give her a little privacy. Aware of what he was doing for her, and although she was already probably ruined in her mother’s eyes, Diana slipped her arms out of the dress and dragged it completely off all the way past her feet. Shivering again, she rearranged herself under the covers. It wasn’t like she was naked, she told herself; she had on a full petticoat underneath that covered everything. And at home, she never slept in her day clothes. And Jerry was like a — well, no, she corrected herself. She might have to amend that particular statement. He wasn’t like a brother at all.  
Indicating she was done, she reached for his arm and tugged him a little closer for warmth. Timidly, he moved back towards her, turning on his side and facing her again, putting his head back on the pillow.  
He regarded her for a moment, then spoke. “Thank you for coming here,” he whispered.  
She smiled against the pillow. “It was kind of an accident. But I’m so glad I did.”  
Jerry looked down shyly, away from her face. “I didn’t know you noticed me,” he said, so quietly that Diana had to lean in to make sure she’d heard him right.  
“I’ve wanted to see you,” Jerry continued, “but you’re usually with Anne and I’m always in the barn or something. I… didn’t think you noticed me.”  
Diana put her hand on his chest in front of her. “Of course I noticed you, Jerry,” she countered softly. “How could I not? With you always flirting with me.”  
He smiled at her with his signature flirtatiousness, eyes sparkling, then became serious again. “I meant every word,” he whispered, bringing his hand up towards her cheek, his fingers hesitating and trembling slightly at her jaw. Before he could take his hand away, she reached for it and pressed it to her face, covering his with hers. His hand against her cheek was warm, and melting, and soft.  
Jerry gave her a look of shining sheer tenderness as he sighed and whisper-laughed, his hand relaxing against hers. She laughed too, smiling deeply into her cheeks. Everything was rushed and new and close, so, close, but she was in ecstasy and blissfully happy, and just amazed that she had never known this was even a feeling.  
He moved his thumb across her cheek for a moment more, then they took their hands in each other's and interlaced fingers on the pillow between them.  
“Are you comfortable?” He whispered.  
“Yes,” she breathed.  
He gave her a winning smile. “Goodnight, Diana, — Moon goddess,” he added, winking at her.  
Diana was instinctively unable to hold in her smile in return. “Bonne nuit, Jerry,” she whispered back at him.  
They closed their eyes with deep breaths and squeezed each other’s hands as they fell asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fanfiction published to the internet so let me know your thoughts! Please comment and go easy on me :)  
I had to write about them because they're so young, happy and free.  
If you think this would make a good full story, let me know - I've got ideas.  
Peace! elleventure


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